Into the Daintree

We are back from our excursion into the world’s oldest rainforest. Access to the Cape Tribulation area where we stayed is by ferry.
Daintree River FerryBret suspects they haven’t built a bridge because there are crocodiles in the river. I suspect it is lobbying by the ferry owners.

The Daintree is one of the few areas of the world where the rainforest meets the ocean (in this case the Coral Sea).
Crocodile Warning It sounds picturesque, but it also limits the areas where you can safely swim do to hazards such as crocodiles. Plus, the entire beach area is off limits to swimming from October through May because of the stinger jellyfish, which has a nasty habit of killing or severely disabling anyone that gets in its way. In other words, if you are planning a beach vacation I would stick to the Caribbean, where the water is warmer and the sand is softer. On the other hand, if you want to take a nighttime hike into one of the most diverse natural places on earth, the Daintree is the place.

Our guide for our jungle hike was Neil from Cooper Creek Reserve. He led Bret, myself and three elderly Australians – all grasping flashlight “torches” on a two-hour jaunt into the “heart of darkness.” There we came across numerous marsupials, tree-frogs, spiders, and sleeping birds. Unfortunately, we didn’t see any pythons on our walk, which tend to dwell high in the forest canopy. Because the pythons slither high in the treetops, birds sleep on little vines or twigs about five to ten feet from the ground. Their perches are so delicate it looks as if they are suspended in mid air. This choice of sleeping locale is strategic. Any approaching python would undoubtedly cause sufficient vibration to wake the birds from their slumber, allowing them to escape. Several times during the hike, Neil had us douse our torches just to see how dark it was. Amazingly dark. You couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. It was a dark as being in a cave.

On our drive to the cabin after the hike, we finally saw a python. It was slinking along the edge of the road. Must have been at least eight feet long.
Cabin at Rainforest HideawayBack at the cabin, Bret using his newly acquired spider identification skills promptly spotted a venomous wolf spider on the floor. I used my well-honed wildlife handling skills and smooshed it with my shoe. We slept poorly and were awakened early by a pair of squabbling cockateels.

The weather turned cloudy and rainy, dampening our plans to relax on the beach so we took a hike through the very wet Mossman Gorge area and then headed south in search of sunnier weather.
Bret at Mossman Gorge
Mossman Gorge
Mossman Gorge